California Counts Town Hall: The Pros And Cons Of Repealing The Death Penalty

Join KPBS’ Maureen Cavanaugh, KPCC’s Larry Mantle, and special guests as we explore the arguments for and against repealing the death penalty, what the California justice system would look like without it and how the current legislation might be reformed to continue practicing it in California.

Beth Webb, sister of Laura Webb, who was killed along with seven other people in the 2011 shooting at Salon Meritage in Seal Beach

Marc Klaas, father of Polly Klaas, who was kidnapped and killed in 1993

Thirteen California inmates have been executed since the state’s death penalty law was enacted in 1978. And, despite its being one of 31 states that allow the death penalty, California has not executed an inmate since January 2006. A decade later, nearly 750 people sit on death row in the Golden State while the legislative, executive and judicial branches of state government go back and forth over the best and most humane way to execute inmates sentenced to death by lethal injection.

This November, California voters will have the chance to decide, once again, whether to continue practicing capital punishment. Proposition 62, the Justice That Works Act of 2016, would abolish the state’s death penalty with a majority of “yes” votes. If passed, the death penalty would be replaced by life in prison without the possibility of parole. A proposal aiming to abolish the death penalty made the ballot in 2012, but fell just short of passing. Legislative analysts say that abolishing the death penalty could save the state hundreds of millions of dollars per year, but not everyone agrees. Opponents of the measure also argue that other states have found ways to continue lethal injection using a single drug rather than the more commonly used three-drug cocktail.